IT has become frighteningly easy to kill a human being on the streets of Nigeria. A rumour, a shout, or a baseless accusation is all that’s needed. A crowd gathers. Fists fly. Stones rain down. Tyres appear. Petrol is fetched, a match struck, and within minutes, a fellow citizen, whose life is protected under Section 33 of Nigeria’s Constitution, is reduced to a charred corpse.
No investigation. No evidence. No defence. No trial. Only death!
This is not justice. It is murder. It must stop now.
In every civilised society, the power to determine guilt and impose punishment is vested in the courts of law. Even where the law prescribes the death penalty, that verdict is pronounced only after a fair and transparent trial. Still, a state governor has to sign the death warrant.
Yet in Nigeria today, hearsay, rumour and mere allegations have become sufficient grounds for execution.
